Description

Cultural Writing. Bayard Taylor was among the thousands of young men who spilled into California in the tumultuous year 1849. He arrived not with pick and shovel but with pen and paper, dispatched by Horace Greeley of the New York Times to report on the madness, exuberance, and upheaval of the California gold rush. With wit, intelligence, curiosity, and engaging humor, Taylor chronicled the birth of modern California. His account is widely regarded as a classic of western literature. Writing as he moved, [Taylor] captured the feel and panorama of a volatile time and wrote a book that can still hold us a century and a half later. -- James D. Houston.